Matthew 15:24
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
Matthew 10:27
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."
John 14:15
It is interesting to me to discover that a growing number of us who are on this journey are seldom asked, "So ...how did you come to these understandings?" If I had a friend or a family member who I began to see were doing things a bit differently from what they had done in the past, I would ask them why. Maybe that is a rare thing these days. We live in a pluralistic society where different groups of people live and work alongside of one another and yet maintain a measure of their own identity, where the ideas of tolerism and, "What works for you doesn't work for me.", are so common place. Added to that is our constant preoccupation with our own self interests, that it appears that we have become a generation of people who don't really want to know about the lives of other people, unless it seems, out of curiosity and to critique and compare them to ourselves. Christians for the most part are no different.
While I was talking with a friend one day a couple of years ago, she told me that she had been going through the Feasts of the Lord DVD series. The things she said peeked my curiosity and I asked if she would mind if I borrowed them. I was truly blown away by the things that I learned! It was like opening one box of stunning surprises and then another, and another! I had never seen or been taught the connection between the life of the Messiah and the Feasts that I had always seen as just being Jewish holidays and observances. I learned that the Feasts are not Jewish but belong to YHVH and He said they were to be followed through every generation. (Leviticus 23) I am ashamed to admit that I saw the life of my Savior in a way that I had never really seen Him, namely, Jewish. Now before you go thinking, "How lame can she be? Everyone knows He's Jewish!" Do we really? If we are honest with ourselves, instead of trying to defend our beliefs, we have to admit that we've changed Him so much that He is more like us than them in our minds.
Which brings me to the next point.
After watching the series, uncomfortable questions arose in my mind. Ones I had had from time to time as I read the Scriptures, but when those questions would come up in my reading, I pushed them down with some pat answer that I had heard or read time and again during my experience as a believer. I would just apply some (unknowingly incorrect) explanation like, "Jesus nailed the law to the cross so we don't have to follow it anymore." Or, "The law is for the Jews. We live under grace." Or even those added by translators and found in parentheses, like Mark 7:19 in the NIV ("In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.") http://www.biblelight.net/unclean-foods-jesus.htm Pat answers that I really didn't know the meaning to, but they were what I heard, so who was I to question them? But in looking back, what it really boiled down to in my mind was that other than stories from the lives of characters in the Old Testament that I could learn from, and the Ten (well, nine) Commandments, and probably less than a handful of abominations that are written in there, the teachings didn't apply to me because they were given only to the Jews. I mean, isn't that what Dispensational Theology and Replacement/Covenant Theology teaches Christians? That the Jewish people are separate from us? Or we replaced them because they rejected Jesus and because of His sacrifice we are now free to live only under grace? Part of Dispensationalism believes that only those commands explicitly given after the book of Acts apply to us today. Nearly all of the thirty seven thousand Christian denominations have most of those theologies securely in place and most of those teachings did not become mainstream, through commentaries in study Bibles, universities and conferences until the late 19th century.
"Ironically enough", it was around this same time of questioning that another friend of mine posed that uncomfortable question to me that I wrote about in "Ho Ho Ho!" The Beginning - Part 1, "If the Word of God is supposed to be taken literally and He is the same yesterday, today and forever, then why don't we do everything it says to do?" I stared at her e mail and for the life of me I couldn't give her one of those pat answers. They had begun to ring hollow. What if He expected more of me and of the corporate us? I had always heard it preached and taught, "We don't live under the Mosaic law." Well, if that is true and the law is only for the Jews, then other than the fact that Christian churches don't keep His Sabbath from sundown Friday night to sundown on Saturday, why do we try to adhere to the other nine Commandments that were written by the very hand of YHVH and given to Moses on top of Mt. Sinai? It doesn't get any more Mosaic than that. Some people may not see themselves as being accountable to the Mosaic laws that govern this country either, but if they got caught breaking one, their perspective would quickly change.
Here is an illustration from my life. A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with one of my grandsons. We were on the topic of discipline and how come there seems to be different rules for different kids. He wondered how come some kids can do things that he can't. I explained the difference is because those kids belong to other parents, and parents have been given the choice to rear their children the way they see fit. A problem comes when there are different rules for different kids living within the same family. That causes a lot of strife and it is a fault that lies with the parents, not the children. I told him that there may come a time when he is older that he could hear his dad say, "If you are going to live under this roof, you will live by my rules." I went on to tell him that his dad has that authority. I explained that he is accountable to God for how his children are brought up and the word tells us that if a parent doesn't discipline their children, they hate them. (Proverbs 13:24) That would be like parents telling their kids that they don't care what they do, or how they treat others, or how their lives end up - or even if they inherit eternal life or death. If children do not learn to obey and bring pleasure to an earthly father that they can see, they will have a very hard time learning to obey and bring great pleasure to the heavenly One whom they cannot see. Good parents have good rules that are taken from the word, and they will stand by those rules for the good of each one of their children and society at large.
The Father's wisdom shines brightly in the way that He desired homes to be an earthly reflection of His Kingdom. We see this in places such as: Genesis 2:18-25, Psalm 127:3, Malachi 2:13-15 and Ephesians 5:22-33 and 6:1-4. Since the plan for earthly families was His perfect design, no matter how much we have messed it up, how much more right to authority does He have over children who have asked to be adopted into His family and therefore intend to spend eternity in His House? Pause for a moment and think on that.
As a Loving Father YHVH did what He could. He gave us His instructions and right rulings that were obeyed by some and not obeyed by most of the others, until the fullness of time came and His only begotten Son was born and lived a perfect life as THE WORD - The Living Torah. He taught people how to live out His Father's instructions, showing them the love of the Spirit behind the Law, and His disciples and His true first century followers ...followed. About three hundred years later, Roman Emperor Constantine and Pope Julius thought they could do it better and nothing has ever been the same. Is that your fault or mine? No, it isn't. But once we have been shown the truth we have a responsibility before YHVH to uphold it and live by it.
The Scriptures and history shows, that because of disobedience to YHVH's instructions and right rulings, the Israelites were divided into northern Israel and southern Judah and were sent into captivity. After seventy years, the tribes of Benjamin and Judah came back. Jeremiah 29:10-14 The ten northern tribes never returned and they scattered to the four corners of the earth. Those who went to what is now Great Britain, eventually made their way to what would become the United States. There were very good reasons why the Puritans fled religious persecution and once they arrived here they kept YHVH's Sabbath and outlawed Christmas and Easter and All-Saints Day. Their reasoning was based on the adherence to the Scriptures interpreting the Scriptures; not the ways in which men had interpreted it. The word of YHVH is living and is its own witness to the truth! They believed in following the First and the Renewed Covenants of the Bible as they are written. Other believers then and now rise up in opposition of this, saying, "The Savior fulfilled the law so we don't have to!" Well again, the Bible wasn't written in English. The Hebrew word for fulfilled is: lekayem (le-KAI-yem) which means to uphold, establish, explain, interpret. In the Greek, fulfill is pierro which means "to obey as it was intended." Not "done away with" as we have been taught. No WONDER the church is in the condition that it is! Those of us who spend much time in the word at all tend to read transliterations of translations and the commentaries within study Bibles written by individuals whose preaching and books we enjoy.
As a result of all of this, believers don't know right from wrong and we have forgotten who we are!
One evening as my husband I were discussing this, I told him that I see the writing on the wall as it pertains to people I love who are angered by this truth, but I cannot be silent. The church has been veiled from it for too long! Time is increasingly short and we had better know whom we have believed in!
"6a For I am the Lord, I change not;"
Malachi 3:6a
"8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
Hebrews 13:8
"9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Acts 1:9-11
"38 Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Mark 8:38
and Luke 9:26
In closing, I ask that you please put aside your own theological bent and positions on these matters and look at the Scriptures with new eyes. With eyes to see and a heart to understand the teaching of the entire Bible. What you see below are sites that you can turn to for biblical and historical truth and understanding so that in these last days we can remember who we are.
My body was covered with goose bumps and I cried while watching this video clip!
http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/booklets/the-united-states-and-great-britain-in-prophecy
